liegen

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch liegen, from Old Dutch liegan, from Proto-West Germanic *leugan, from Proto-Germanic *leuganą, from Proto-Indo-European *lewgʰ-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈli.ɣə(n)/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lie‧gen
• Rhymes: -iɣən

Verb

liegen

1. (intransitive) to lie (to tell lies)

Inflection

Derived terms

• afliegen
• beliegen
• gelieg
• liegbeest
• voorliegen

Related terms

• leugen
• leugenaar

Descendants

• Afrikaans: lieg
• Berbice Creole Dutch: liki
• Jersey Dutch: lîxe
• Negerhollands: lug, lik, lieg
• Skepi Creole Dutch: lig

German

Etymology

From Middle High German ligen, from Old High German ligen, from older liggen by generalisation of the stem of the 2nd and 3rd persons singular, from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

Compare Low German liggen, Dutch liggen, English lie, Danish ligge, Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːɡən/, ,

• audio

  (file)

• audio

  (file)

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lie‧gen

Verb

liegen (class 5 strong, third-person singular present liegt, past tense lag, past participle gelegen, past subjunctive läge, auxiliary haben or sein)

1. (intransitive) to lie (to be in a horizontal position)
   1. (Switzerland) to lie down
2. (intransitive) to be, to lie somewhere (of flat objects, also of inpatients in a hospital; otherwise use sitzen or stehen)
3. (intransitive) to be located, to lie somewhere (of countries, towns, houses, etc.)
4. (intransitive) to be, to stand (of indices, measurements)
   • 2012 June 19, Die Welt‎, archived from the original on 12 April 2013, page 10:

     Der deutsche Energieverbrauch lag in den ersten drei Monaten des Jahres rund zwei Prozent unter dem Niveau des Vorjahreszeitraumes.

     In the first three months of the year, the German energy consumption was about two percent below the level of the same period last year.

Usage notes

• The most common auxiliary with liegen is haben: Ich habe gelegen. In northern and central Germany, this form is strongly predominant and in some regions exclusive. In southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, sein is usual in the vernacular and also, alternatively, in standard usage: Ich bin gelegen.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

• “liegen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “liegen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “liegen” in Duden online
• “liegen” in OpenThesaurus.de

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch liegan, from Proto-West Germanic *leugan, from Proto-Germanic *leuganą, from Proto-Indo-European *lewgʰ-.

Verb

liegen

1. (intransitive) to lie (to tell lies)

Inflection

Descendants

• Dutch: liegen
• Limburgish: lege

Further reading

• “lieghen (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “liegen”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN